Tuesday

Austin - gunman opened fire on UT

A gunman wearing a ski mask and brandishing a rifle entered a library at the University of Texas at Austin these days and fired numerous shots before taking his own life, university officials and police stated.

Police are seeking for a achievable 2nd suspect and the campus, web site of an infamous 1966 sniper massacre, remains on lockdown.

"The armed suspect is dead. No other injuries have been reported," UT President Bill Powers wrote in a campus email.

The shooter was discovered dead on the sixth floor of the library from apparently self inflicted wounds, police stated.

Police are currently clearing every building on campus looking for a second suspect who is described as wearing a beanie and carrying a long rifle.

"We are working the chance of a second suspect," stated UT police chief Robert Dawson. "We're attempting to eliminate that possibility."

An e mail and text alert was sent to students and faculty around 8 a.m. Central Time, just as the day's first classes were beginning, warning that an "armed subject was reported last seen at Perry Castaneda Library" and telling students to remain in place.

Eyewitnesses reported a tense, confusing scene.

"I was in the back in the library, and I see these cops run in and start screaming, ‘Get the hell out, get the hell out,' " UT junior Tim Cabaza mentioned.

Accounts differed on whether the gunman was wearing a black organization suit or a gray sweat suit. Numerous witnesses mentioned he wore a mask and carried a rifle resembling an AK-47.

Martina Trevino, mother of a 6-month-old infant, saw the gunman and ran into the back from the library, immediately after which she heard shots, reported her father, Oscar Trevino of Austin.

He rushed to the campus soon after receiving text messages about the incident from his daughter, who works at a store inside the Jester dorm across the street from the Perry-CastaƱeda Library.

Martina Trevino and other eyewitnesses were transported by bus to Austin police headquarters downtown for further interviews, Oscar Trevino stated.

The father said he continually sent his daughter text messages telling her that he loved her and that she ought to relax.

"Everything's in God's hands now," he reported he wrote her.

"God, I just thought to myself, what are the chances this could happen on the UT campus," he mentioned.

UT was the scene of one in the most notorious campus shootings in history. In 1966, ex-Marine Charles Whitman killed 14 individuals and wounded dozens more from his perch in a tower on campus.

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